Inglés - Nivel 4

BOOK USED: TOP NOTCH 2B

UNIT 6:  Eating well

Communication Goals:

  • Talk about food passions
  • Make an excuse to decline food
  • Discuss lifestyle changes you have made
  • Describe local dishes

Vocabulary:

  • Nutrition terminology
  • Food passions
  • Excuses for not eating something
  • Food descriptions

Grammar:

  • Use to / Used to
  • Negative yes / no questions
  • Offers and suggestions with Why don't??

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

  • Use to / Used to: expansion
  • Be used to vs. get used to
  • Would + base form
  • More about negative yes / no questions, Why don't??

Conversation Strategies:

  • Provide an emphatic affirmative response with Definitely
  • Offer food with Please help yourself
  • Acknowledge someone's efforts by saving something positive
  • Soften the rejection of an offer with I'll pass on the ...
  • Use a negative question to express surprise
  • Use It's not a problem to downplay inconvenience

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

  • Listen for details
  • Listen to personalize

Pronunciation:

  • Sound reduction: use to / used to

Reading:

Texts:

  • A healthy eating pyramid
  • Descriptions of types of diets
  • A magazine article about eating habits
  • A lifestyles survey
  • Menu ingredients
  • A photo story

Skills/strategies:

  • Understand from context
  • Summarize
  • Compare and contrast

Writing:

Task:

  • Write persuasive paragraph about the differences in present-day and past diets

WRITING BOOSTER

  • Connecting ideas: subordinating conjunctions

UNIT 7:  About Personality

Communication Goals:

  • Get to know someone's like and dislikes 
  • Cheer someone's up
  • Discuss personality and its origin
  • Examine the impact of birth order on personality

Vocabulary:

  • Positive and negative adjectives
  • Terms to discuss psychology and personality

Grammar:

  • Gerunds and infinitives as direct objects
  • Gerunds as objects of prepositions

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

  • Gerunds and infinitives: other functions
  • Negative gerunds

Conversation Strategies:

  • Clarify an earlier question with Well, for example,?
  • Buy time to think with Let?s see
  • Use auxiliary do to emphasize a verb
  • Thank someone for showing interest
  • Offer empathy with I now what you mean

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

  • Listen for main ideas
  • Listen for specific information
  • Synthesize information
  • Infer information

Pronunciation:

  • Reduction of to in infinitives

Reading:

Texts:

  • A pop psychology website
  • A textbook excerpt about the nature / nurture controversy
  • Personality surveys
  • A photo story

Skills/strategies:

  • Support reasoning with details
  • Understand from context
  • Make personal comparisons

Writing:

Task:

  • Write an essay describing someone's personality

WRITING BOOSTER

  • Parallel structure

UNIT 8:  The arts

Communication Goals:

  • Recommend a museum
  • Ask about and describe art objects
  • Talk about artistic talent and where it comes from
  • Discuss your favorite artists and the reasons you like them

Vocabulary:

  • Kinds of art
  • Positive adjectives
  • Materials and objects
  • Describing how art affects us

Grammar:

  • The passive voice
  • Form, meaning, and usage
  • Statements and questions

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

  • Transitive and intransitive verbs
  • The passive voice: form in all tenses

Conversation Strategies:

  • Say Be sure not to miss ____ to emphasize the importance of an action
  • Introduce the first aspect of an opinion with For one thing,?
  • Express enthusiasm for what someone has said with No kidding!
  • Invite someone?s opinion with What do you think of ____?

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

  • Understand from context
  • Listen to take notes
  • Infer point of view

Pronunciation:

  • Empathic stress

Reading:

Texts:

  • Museum descriptions
  • A book excerpt about the origin of artistic talent
  • An artistic survey
  • A photo story

Skills/strategies:

  • Recognize the main idea
  • Identify supporting details
  • Paraphrase

Writing:

Task:

  • Write a detailed description of a decorative object

WRITING BOOSTER

  • Providing supporting details

UNIT 9: Living with computers

Communication Goals:

  • Troubleshoot computers problems
  • Recommend a better deal
  • Describe how you use computers
  • Discuss the social impact of the internet

Vocabulary:

  • Computers parts
  • Ways to reassure someone
  • Computers terms and commands
  • Internet activities

Grammar:

  • The infinitive of purpose
  • Comparisons with as?as
  • Meaning and usage
  • Just, almost, quite, nearly

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

  • Expressing purpose with in order to and for
  • As?as to compare adverbs
  • Comparative / superlatives: review

Conversation Strategies:

  • Ask for assistance with could you take a look at ____?
  • Introduce an explanation with Well,?
  • Make a suggestion with Why don't you try ___ing?
  • Express interest informally with Oh, yeah?
  • Use Everyone says? to introduce a popular opinion
  • Say Well, I've heard ____ to support a point of view

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

  • Infer meaning
  • Listen for the main idea
  • Listen for details

Pronunciation:

  • Stress in as?as phrases

Reading:

Texts:

  • A computer troubleshooting website
  • A computer user survey
  • Newspaper clippings about the internet
  • A photo story

Skills/strategies:

  • Understand from context
  • Relate to personal experience

Writing:

Task:

  • Write an essay evaluating the benefits and problems of the internet

WRITING BOOSTER

  • Organizing ideas

UNIT 10: Ethics and values

Communication Goals:

  • Discuss ethical choices
  • Return someone else's property
  • Express personal values
  • Discuss acts of kindness and honesty

Vocabulary:

  • Ways to confirm a response
  • Ethical choices
  • Ways to acknowledge thanks
  • Personal values

Grammar:

  • The real and unreal conditional 
  • Form, usage, common errors
  • Possessive pronouns / Whose 
  • Form

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

  • Present and future factual conditionals: usage and common errors
  • Order of clauses: punctuation
  • Possessive nouns: review and expansion
  • Pronouns: summary

Conversation Strategies:

  • Say You think so? To reconfirm someone's opinion
  • Provide an emphatic affirmative response with Absolutely
  • Acknowledge thanks with Don?t mention it

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

  • Listen to infer information
  • Listen for main ideas
  • Understand vocabulary from context
  • Listen to apply new vocabulary
  • Support reasoning with details

Pronunciation:

  • Assimilation of d + y in would you

Reading:

Texts:

  • A personal values self-test
  • Print and online news stories about kindness and honesty
  • A photo story

Skills/strategies:

  • Predict
  • Infer meaning
  • Summarize
  • Interpret information
  • Relate to personal experience

Writing:

Task:

  • Write essay about someone's personal choice

WRITING BOOSTER

  • Introducing conflicting ideas